Vera Kobalia, the economy minister of the nation of Georgia, is stuck in the middle of one strange melee.

Kobalia grew up in Canada and was educated in British Columbia.

And it may have been in Vancouver where she got down with girlfriends at a strip club, appearing on stage. That, at least, is the Russian version of events.

This much is certain: She is clothed and does nothing more shocking than lift her dress above her knees. The young women with her have their clothes on. At worst, two look like they have been shopping at a consignment shop for NFL cheerleader outfits.

There is no indication that the photo was snapped in a strip club. And she says the photo wasn’t even taken in Vancouver.

Russian journalists took a look at the Facebook photo and decided it was good time to make fun of Georgia, an old adversary.

“From strippers to ministers” shouted the headline in one Russian tabloid. At least headlines, not bullets, were fired.

The Vancouver Sun joined in, questioning Kobalia’s resume.

Kobalia has shot back that the Sun is controlled by the Kremlin. The newspaper, she says, is “a Russian black propaganda unit that is publishing ‘rumours’ designed to throw her off her mission of making Georgia the new Singapore.”

She is an easy target: All of 28 with not much in her past to say, sure, let’s let her run our economy. She had lived in Canada for 15 years before becoming economy minister and had no experience at politics.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili appointed her this month. The UK’s Independent reports that the president and Kobalia met at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. He has a habit, the newspaper says, of appointing people in their 20s and 30s to government posts.

Kobalia says the photo is 10 years old and was taken on vacation in Florida. “If the worst thing that the opposition or anyone else can find about me is my old picture from college than I don’t see anything wrong with that,” she is quoted by The Independent as saying.